


Remember My Name

by WhimsicalWordWeaver



Series: Death is Just the Beginning [1]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Near Death Experiences, Origin Story, This is how ember became ember, environment based off of little house on the prairie, kids being bullies, time period work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 05:38:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15308649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhimsicalWordWeaver/pseuds/WhimsicalWordWeaver
Summary: All ghosts have one thing in common: they've died. To a ghost, the story of their death influences all they do and all they mean as a ghost. This is Ember's story.





	Remember My Name

 

 

Amber, most everyone in town would say, was a very quiet, mousy girl. She was always at school before the school bell ring and she always sat in the back of the class, regardless of the grade she was in. Her long skirts were always plain, her blouse always covered in a bit a dirt, and her hair never properly tucked into her slightly askew bonnet. She wasn't very smart, but she never caused a fuss and was always reading a book of some sort.

She never really spoke, but she would always hum. Every day, if you walked passed Amber you could hear her humming a song.

Unfortunately, other students and kids from the small village that was Amity, took to this humming girl as something that could not be understood. Kids could be cruel when there was something that they did not understand. Every day she would walk from her one-room cabin to school and every day her classmates would be there to tease her and to call her names. Some would even go so far as to push her down to the ground.

This day was like the others.

Ember was hurrying her way to school, her slate and reader clutched in her arms. Two girls and a boy, about her age, stopped her before she could enter the school house. They were laughing. One of the girls pushed her.

Amber yelped as she hit the ground. Her reader and slate went flying into the mud. She glared at her assailants, opening her mouth to yell at them.

"Quiet, quiet, Ashley," the other girl taunted, "Never speaking." Amber snarled at the wrong name being addressed to her.

"She must be mute," the boy said.

"Nah," the girl who pushed her practically snarled, "She's just dumb. She just can't think of anything to say."

"She probably doesn't even know how to speak."

The bell attached to the outer wall of the school house began to ring and Amber's three tormenters scurried off before the teacher came out to investigate. Amber grumbled under her breath as she picked herself up off of the ground. She didn't even bother to brush off her skirts as she grabbed her materials and walked into the school. Typically the younger grades sat in the front and the higher grades sat in the back. Even though Amber was only 17 she sat back were the 18 and 19 years olds typically sat. She cracked open her reader and began to read, ignoring everything the teacher was teaching for the day.

"Alyssa!"

A nudge in her ribs from the person she was sharing a desk with made her put her book down and look up. The teacher was staring at her with a stern frown on her face.

"Alyssa," the teacher said, planting her hands on her hip, "When I address you, you better show me the proper respect that is due and answer me immediately. Do you have that."

Amber opened her mouth to respond, that her name was Amber not Alyssa, and that she didn't know the teacher was talking to her, but the teacher was already talking again.

"And furthermore, you are not to read while my lecture is going on. We are on maths now, not literature. Do you understand?"

Again, Amber tried to speak, but the teacher was already walking away, "Now class, we shall begin our study on division for the beginning grades and long division for the older."

Amber just sighed and went back to her book.

...

Another year passed, everyday much like the last, and Amber was 18, only a few weeks away from graduating. It was a weekend, meaning no school and even more thankfully, no classmates. However, it did mean that she had to find other ways to get out of her home. Her mother was to addicted to the drink and her father to distracted by that fact to care about their children, Amber couldn't bear to stay in the house. It just made her sad.

Funnily enough, this night found her in the school house. Many days she spent tormented here, but on the weekend it was a perfect safe haven of solitude. She smiled to herself, humming a tune that she made up, and sat at the teacher's chair . She opened her book.

Hours later, footsteps and laughter alerted Amber. She stood up from her book, but before she could look around, the front door of the school house opened up. Four of her classmates, a year younger than her, came in. They were laughing, holding cigarettes, pipes, and were already lighting matches. Then they noticed Amber.

"Damn." One of the boys muttered, terrified of being caught in the act of such drugs. The four boys turned, dropped their matches and nicotine, and ran out of the door before Amber could even say anything.

The school house, made of old wood that was weak, brittle, and dry from lack of rain, lit up faster than the matches. Amber screamed and stumbled back at the sight of the flame. The fire spread quickly, blocking the door, and already the building was filling with smoke. The lack of ventilation caused Amber to cough. She ran to the window, it was too tall for her, so she grabbed a desk and used it as a step stool. The window, which was made of panes of stained glass, couldn't be opened, but Alice smashed at the glass and took a few breathes of clean air as soon as she could.

The fire was moving fast. She pulled at the metal and wood that made the crossings of the window, but she couldn't break them.

She screamed as the heat licked at her feet. The four boys were just outside, but they were running away. One turned back to look at her, fear in his eyes.

Amber couldn't speak from the smoke, but she pleaded with her eyes.

One of the student's yelled, "It's just the Alice girl. C'mon we have to get out of here!"

The boy turned and ran away.

Amber screamed again, in desperation and pure fear.

The dry wood quickly spread the flames. Amber didn't have to scream for long.

 


End file.
